2004 grenade attack case: Former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia’s son gets life sentence, 19 get death

NEW DELHI: A court in Bangladesh sentenced a former minister to death on Wednesday along with 18 others in connection with a grenade attack in 2004.

The attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 targeted Hasina, that killed 24 people and injured 500 others, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The then opposition leader Hasina survived the attack with a partial hearing loss.

As per the investigations, an influential quarter of the then BNP-led government, including Rahman, had pioneered and sponsored the attackers, the operatives of militant Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI).

Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar is among 19 people who were sentenced to death. Babar was a minister in the government of Khaleda Zia from 2001 to 2006. Forty-nine people were accused in the case, including former ministers and police and intelligence officials.

Judge Shahed Nuruddin of Dhaka’s fast track Tribunal pronounced the judgment ordering Rahman to be sent to prison for life along with 18 others.